M-Borg vs. THE Flavortown U Thread, Orig. by Buckeye Paul, absconded w/by talent.

[Hannibal]

Eh -- at VT I think I'd lay the points.

[WM Wolverine]

M is at home vs Ohio.

[WingsFan]

2 TDs over MSU? I'll take that bet, Sparty should be one of the best teams in football this year. Probably be a showdown of the undefeated.

[iam416]

It was a 2-TD game last season at East Lansing.

[froot loops]

I'd steer clear of that game.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I'd steer clear of that game.

Yeah, that's gonna be a tough one to call. A lot depends on injuries for each team going in. If they go with the same starting rosters as they have after 4 games with minimal injuries, it's going to be a battle.

Lots of hate between these two coaches and there will be a lot of one-upsmanship going on. That means risk taking in play calling, a lot of variance and the potential for both disaster or big plays. Those games are fun to watch.

I think the M/osu match-up is going to be less than exciting compared to this one. The best part is going to be watching the Harbugh/ufm meeting pre-game at mid field and both of their faces during the game.

[froot loops]

I think State will be really good offensively and should wreck teams on the defensive line, but the defensive backfield is a concern. That is exactly what the Buckeyes attacked last year.

[SeattleLionsFan]

It will be interesting to see if Sparty can reload at CB and how they deal with the loss of Nard-dawg.

[iam416]

should wreck teams on the defensive line

Yeah, the interesting thing is that OSU's OL is back as are all key offensive pieces except Devin Smith. And OSU put up 268 yards rushing against MSU on 41 carries last season (and 273 on 40 the year before in a loss).

On that side of the ball, that game comes down to OSU's WRs v MSU's secondary. Two years ago OSU couldn't do shit passing and it cost them the game. Last year OSU's WRs crushed MSU's secondary and OSU was completely balanced.

[froot loops]

I expect they will change a little schematically. They were a little stubborn last year in their coverages, it stuck out against teams like OSU, Oregon and Baylor but they were giving up big plays to everyone. Losing Isiah Lewis to graduation was a tremendous blow to that scheme. That scheme puts a lot of pressure on the safety. Losing Denard was bad enough. It will be a challenge to reload at corner as you saw last year they had to use Lippett, he stabilized that weakness unfortunately they went to it after JT Barrett performed surgery on them.

[iam416]

I've never seen a M fan treated poorly at OSU. Friends who have gone to the game in AA speak poorly of M fans. Very poorly. Proven fact.

[WM Wolverine]

Ohio should beat every team on their schedule by 2 TD's. A few will be closer, Sparty's defense has the best chance of keeping it close.

[Jeff Buchanan]

My view is that there is a motivational bias to say behavior when the games are played in the home town reflects poorly on the home fans.

I avoided c-bus because of the tales of unruly osu fans. In some 40+ years of the M/osu rivalry, I went to one game in c-bus during the RR years, was hosted by talent and had a great time. osu fans that I encountered were fine. Welcoming, in fact. They were just average tale gaters that love college football and love osu, just like we love M. talent did tell us to avoid certain spots. We did and had no problems.

[hack]

Every fan base has every type of constituent.

[Jeff Buchanan]

While I don't disagree with that, my perception is that osu, recognizing they had a problem with the behavior of their constituency of fans, embarked on a student based campaign to make sure visiting fans felt welcomed and were not harassed.

When I traveled to c-bus and while walking to the stadium, I was approached by "welcomers' handing out leaflets and buttons. Nice touch.

Treatment I received in one trip to Champaign as a visiting M fan was worse, way worse, than anything I encountered in my one trip to c-bus.

Sample size of 1 not withstanding, c-bus and my time at that Stalin era designed stadium called the horseshoe was pretty decent.